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Speaker 1: Let's go to the word of God. I love the
Speaker 1: flow that our pastors are in right now. There's so
Speaker 1: much more to the story. And and obviously you can
Speaker 1: tell I am not Pastor Steven, just in case you
Speaker 1: didn't know, I'm not him. What you got to understand
Speaker 1: about our pastor is you know that there are only
Speaker 1: two people in this world that were ever given the
Speaker 1: vision of this church, the weight of this church, the
Speaker 1: weight of this vision, and I will I'd be remiss
Speaker 1: to think that I would ever understand what that means
Speaker 1: at all. And so the opportunity to be able to
Speaker 1: get on this stage and talk for the next two
Speaker 1: and a half hours, it's not that oh I thought
Speaker 1: that was a deal, okay, thirty nine minutes. Thirty nine minutes. Man,
Speaker 1: I don't take it lightly. And we have some incredible pastors.
Speaker 1: I don't just say that because I work for him.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that that man is a
Speaker 1: hero of my life and a hero of the faith,
Speaker 1: and he's the real deal. He really is the real deal,
Speaker 1: and the little that I do get to know about him,
Speaker 1: he is the real deal. And it's incredible. We need
Speaker 1: people like that. We need people like that, Like, here's
Speaker 1: the faith that we can actually look to. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Top shelf leaders, right, top shelf leaders
Speaker 1: the ones that who last, who go the whole way right,
Speaker 1: who don't just like call it quits twenty years in,
Speaker 1: but who keeps going. And so I'm so grateful for
Speaker 1: this house and the pastors of this house, and I
Speaker 1: really believe that this series is one of the series
Speaker 1: that will really never forget. But I'm gonna be honest
Speaker 1: with you. Three weeks in, you know, he's in the
Speaker 1: Book of Joshua. And I told chunks about a month ago,
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, I think I want to be in
Speaker 1: Joshua with them. And after about those three weeks he preached,
Speaker 1: I said, Okay, he's getting every nook and cranny of Joshua.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay away from it, but I'm must stay
Speaker 1: in the same vein. There's so much more to this story.
Speaker 1: So here's what I want you to do. How many
Speaker 1: of you brought your bibles? You believe in the Word
Speaker 1: of God. Anybody believe in the Word of God. He
Speaker 1: brought your bibles with you. Okay. No, you must be
Speaker 1: familiar with this place because we put it on the
Speaker 1: screens for you. No worries. Go to Second King's chapter
Speaker 1: four Sega King's chapter four, verse eight. Second King's Chapter four,
Speaker 1: verse eight. I'm gonna give you a second you found it.
Speaker 1: If you need time, say hold up, okay, hurry up. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what it says. Sega Kings Chapter four, verse
Speaker 1: eight says one day, everyone say one day. Elisha passed
Speaker 1: through Shunam, a leading lady of the town talked him
Speaker 1: into stopping for a meal, and then it became his
Speaker 1: custom whenever he passed through he stopped by for a meal.
Speaker 1: I'm certain, said the woman. Said the woman to her
Speaker 1: husband that this man who stops by with us all
Speaker 1: the time, as a holy man of God, why don't
Speaker 1: we add a small room upstairs, furnish it with the
Speaker 1: bed and the desk, a chair and a lamb, so
Speaker 1: that when he comes by he can stay with us.
Speaker 1: This is the first airbnb of the Bible, okay. And
Speaker 1: so what happened at the next time Elisha came by.
Speaker 1: He went to the room, laid down for a nap,
Speaker 1: and then he said to his servant Gehese, tell that
Speaker 1: shit to white woman. I want to see her. He
Speaker 1: called her, and she came to him through Gehesei. Elisha said,
Speaker 1: you've gone far beyond the call of duty and taken
Speaker 1: care of us. What can we do for you? Do
Speaker 1: you have a request we can bring to the king
Speaker 1: or to the command of the army. And she replied, no,
Speaker 1: I'm good. I don't need anything. I'm secure, satisfied in
Speaker 1: my family. Elisha conferred with gaze, and there's got to
Speaker 1: be something we can do for her. But what gayes
Speaker 1: I said, Well, look, she ain't got no children, and
Speaker 1: her husband's an old man. Don't look to your left,
Speaker 1: don't look to you right. Okay, it might be old.
Speaker 1: It's all right. Call her in, said Elisha. He called her,
Speaker 1: and she stood at the open door, and Elisha said
Speaker 1: to her, this time next year, you're gonna be nursing
Speaker 1: an infant son. Oh my master, holy man, she said,
Speaker 1: don't play games with me, teasing me with such fantasies.
Speaker 1: And the woman conceived a year later, just as Elisha
Speaker 1: had said, she had a son. The child grew up.
Speaker 1: One day he went to his father, just like a
Speaker 1: teenager working with the harvest hands, complaining, my head, my head.
Speaker 1: You see how there were no laughs. He's because y'all
Speaker 1: ain't y'all ain't parents the teenagers. Yet, my head, my head,
Speaker 1: His father ordered. A servant did just what a wise
Speaker 1: man would do, he said, take him to his mother.
Speaker 1: The servant took him in his arms and carried him
Speaker 1: to his mother. He laid on her lap until noon
Speaker 1: and died, and she took him up, laid him on
Speaker 1: the bed the Man of God shut him in alone
Speaker 1: and left. She then called to her husband said, get
Speaker 1: me a servant and a donkey so I can go
Speaker 1: to the Holy Man. I'll be back as soon as
Speaker 1: I can. He's like, yo, why today, this ain't a
Speaker 1: holy day, this ain't new moon, this ain't Sabbath. She said,
Speaker 1: don't ask questions, man, I need to go right now,
Speaker 1: trust me. She went ahead, saddled the donkey, ordering her
Speaker 1: servant take the lead and go as fast as you can.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you if you're going too fast. And so
Speaker 1: off she went, and she came to the Holy Man
Speaker 1: in Mount Carmel, and the Holy Man, spotting her while
Speaker 1: she was still a long way off, said to a servant,
Speaker 1: ga haes I, look out there. Why is the shoon
Speaker 1: of my woman? Quickly now ask her? Is something wrong?
Speaker 1: Is she all right? Okay it sir child? All right?
Speaker 1: And she said everything's fine. When she reached the Holy
Speaker 1: Man at the mouth, she threw herself at the feet
Speaker 1: and held tightly to him and gaze. I came up
Speaker 1: to pull her away, but the Holy Man said leave
Speaker 1: her alone. Can't you see she's upset? God hasn't let
Speaker 1: me in on Why I'm completely in the dark. And
Speaker 1: then she spoke up. Did I ask for a sunmaster,
Speaker 1: didn't I tell you? Don't tease me with false hope.
Speaker 1: Let's go down to verse thirty two. Elisha entered the
Speaker 1: house and found the boy stretched out on the bed dead.
Speaker 1: He went into the room and locked the door, just
Speaker 1: the two of them in the room and prayed to God.
Speaker 1: He then got into the bed with the boy and
Speaker 1: covered him with his body. Mouthed on mouth, eyes on eyes,
Speaker 1: hands on hands. Everyone say mouth on mouth, eyes on eyes,
Speaker 1: hands on hands. You're gonna need that for later. As
Speaker 1: he was stretched out over him like that, the boy's
Speaker 1: body became warm, and Elisa got up and paced back
Speaker 1: and forth in the room. Then he went back and
Speaker 1: stretched himself upon the boy again. The boy started sneezing.
Speaker 1: He called Gehesei and said, get the shoe to white
Speaker 1: woman in here. He called her, and she came in,
Speaker 1: and Elisha said, embrace your son. She fell at Alicia's feet,
Speaker 1: face to the ground. In reverend All. She embraced her
Speaker 1: son and went out with him. I know that's a
Speaker 1: long passage, but you needed that whole story because I
Speaker 1: wanted to get to verse twenty six. Quickly, now ask
Speaker 1: her is something wrong? Are you all right? It's your
Speaker 1: husband okay? Is your child okay? And she said everything's fine.
Speaker 1: I want to title my message today stretch the truth. Now.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all, Oh, my mama told me different. Boy.
Speaker 1: I know your mama be saying, do not, do not,
Speaker 1: do not, stretch the truth. Look at you, Daven, say
Speaker 1: you know what? Come on, look at you, Dave, say
Speaker 1: you know what. Maybe mama was wrong. Some of y'all
Speaker 1: got nervous when you said that maybe mama was wrong.
Speaker 1: LEAs y'all. The name is say stretch the truth. Stretch
Speaker 1: the truth. You can find your way to you see.
Speaker 1: Think it seem stretch the truth? You know. I think
Speaker 1: the world has given this phrase and negative connotations, Stretch
Speaker 1: the truth. How many of you got teenagers? Man? You
Speaker 1: know I come up on this. I appreciate here four
Speaker 1: times on a Sunday. This is crazy my full time.
Speaker 1: And each time I realized I've always talked about Genesis,
Speaker 1: and so I say, you know what, I ain't doing
Speaker 1: it this time. I'm gonna talk about my old older son, Brody.
Speaker 1: I got a sixteen year old and and this this
Speaker 1: man wild because six weeks ago, I'm not gonna lie
Speaker 1: to you. This is this is I'm not stressing the
Speaker 1: truth at all here, Okay, this is serious. Uh six
Speaker 1: weeks ago, my son, my son, he's really good at
Speaker 1: at basketball, he really is. He's got the hight, he's
Speaker 1: got a frame that's way different than mine. Like he
Speaker 1: can take a hit I can't. And he eats a lot, okay,
Speaker 1: And he's really good at at basketball. And so we
Speaker 1: got him into AAU and you know, we're like those
Speaker 1: we're like like church is the first priority, but you
Speaker 1: can still play sports, you know, but we're not like
Speaker 1: a two sport family. That's too much. Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: you do you, but we're gonna do us, okay. And
Speaker 1: so two sports like yeah, you know, you got to pick.
Speaker 1: And so he's always been like like good at basketball,
Speaker 1: and so we're like, yeah, let's do that. So we
Speaker 1: got him into AAU. Well this year, at the end
Speaker 1: of February tryouts to coming up for AU. You know,
Speaker 1: he made it last year, so we're excited, we're pumped,
Speaker 1: you know, And about four weeks for tryouts, my son
Speaker 1: comes to me. He's like, hey, Dad, I want to
Speaker 1: get in shape. I'm like, you already are, but okay,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I want to. I want to get in shape,
Speaker 1: want to stay in shape. I want to just you know,
Speaker 1: do some of the workouts with the football team. And
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, cool, you know, just like a father,
Speaker 1: don't ask any more questions, right, you know. And so
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, you want to, that's that's cool.
Speaker 1: See yeah, you know, everyone's invited to come and work
Speaker 1: out with the football team. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: sounds good, feel free to do it. So he does it,
Speaker 1: and it happens every day after school. Well two weeks
Speaker 1: go by and I'm heading to Ohio and like, son,
Speaker 1: you're coming with me to Ohio. You're gonna miss school
Speaker 1: on Thursday. He's like what. And I was like, now
Speaker 1: that's weird. Sixteen year old. Yeah, I'm saying, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: taking you out of school. You know, we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna play a little hooky, you know, like let's go,
Speaker 1: We're going to Ohio. I thought he would be excited,
Speaker 1: you know, and not like there's anything in Ohio, but
Speaker 1: who cares. You know, it is what it is. It's
Speaker 1: still a trip, Okay, I know, it's not Barbados, but
Speaker 1: still it's Ohio okay. And he's like with that, I
Speaker 1: I can't miss, I can't, I can't miss. I said,
Speaker 1: why you can't miss? What was he He's like, I got,
Speaker 1: I got, I got practice. I said, hold up, practice?
Speaker 1: What do you mean practice? Say? Yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like the thing I'm telling you about, like with football,
Speaker 1: you know, like I got practice. I said no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no no no no, no, no no no no.
Speaker 1: What you told me was you were going to work
Speaker 1: out with the football team. Now you're saying it's practice.
Speaker 1: He said, yea, yeah yeah. And if I miss, I
Speaker 1: can't be on the team. I said team, what team?
Speaker 1: What you mean? Are you on the football team? And
Speaker 1: he's like, I think so, I think I am, dad,
Speaker 1: I think I am. I said, they don't have tryouts.
Speaker 1: He's like no, I said, just like this generation, I
Speaker 1: ain't even got to try out. You know, that's a
Speaker 1: whole other thing. But I said, wait, you really are
Speaker 1: on the team. He said, yeah, I am. I'm on
Speaker 1: the team. And now he starts like getting confident. He's
Speaker 1: like he's gonna want a man out. He's like, I'm grown, man,
Speaker 1: I'm sixteen here we go. He's like, yeah, I'm on
Speaker 1: the team. I said, see, you're not doing basketball. He's like, nah,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not doing basketball. I said, when were
Speaker 1: you going to let me in on that decision. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: I thought I did when I said I was gonna
Speaker 1: play football. I said, you didn't say you were going
Speaker 1: to play football. I said, in that a little bit
Speaker 1: of a stretch, my guy. So apparently not with a
Speaker 1: football family. I don't really care for it, but you
Speaker 1: know is what it is. I'm excited. No, literally, my
Speaker 1: heart sunk. I'm like, man, I remember when I played football.
Speaker 1: The first time I got hit. I said, never again.
Speaker 1: I said, I had seven people blocking from me and
Speaker 1: I got hit. Heck No said all right, man, good luck.
Speaker 1: How fun. I love you, believe in you, proud of you.
Speaker 1: But I say, man, that's a little bit of a
Speaker 1: stretch here. Once they stretch, that's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a stretch. And I want you to go with me here,
Speaker 1: because if I'm honest with you, I like to think
Speaker 1: that there is a lot of power in stretching the
Speaker 1: truth over your entire life, and not just parts of
Speaker 1: your life. In fact, the way that I would like
Speaker 1: to say it is that if you are not stretching
Speaker 1: the truth over your entire life, you might be living
Speaker 1: a lie. You might be living a lie. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk about stretching real quick. How many of
Speaker 1: you have ever felt like you have been in a
Speaker 1: season of stretching? Anyone ever been there? Maybe you're in
Speaker 1: there right now, right now. Here's what you gotta understand
Speaker 1: that I'm not talking about just like negative stretching. Okay, like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it's just like it's crazy, the bills
Speaker 1: are just piling up. There is that kind of stretching, right,
Speaker 1: But there's also that positive stretching, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: some of y'all are being stretched into success some of you,
Speaker 1: some of you this year alone, you're being stretched into
Speaker 1: your destiny. For some of you, you're like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it. God's been telling me. God's been telling me
Speaker 1: to quit my job and start this, start this business.
Speaker 1: And you're being stretched right into your full purpose. Right.
Speaker 1: And so when I talk about stretching, don't just negate
Speaker 1: that to being just negative thing, right, But how many
Speaker 1: of you know that that that the stretching can be
Speaker 1: a blessing, the stretching can also be a burden. Right,
Speaker 1: this is this is, this is a real thing. The
Speaker 1: phrase that I love to say all the time is
Speaker 1: that oftentimes the most anointed people are the most attacked people. Right,
Speaker 1: this is this is If you've lived any kind of life,
Speaker 1: you understand that this is very, very true, because you
Speaker 1: know something's working when you got some tension. Right. How
Speaker 1: many of you ever worked out before? I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: my hands down. You ever done this? I own it.
Speaker 1: I'm okay, I know, I know I need to work out.
Speaker 1: Passing Key's telling us all this stuff you need. You've
Speaker 1: got to be disciplined. I'm like mm hmm, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it, and I'm gonna do it one of these days. Right.
Speaker 1: But when you work out, when you work out, what's
Speaker 1: coming your way tension? Right, Like we all want to
Speaker 1: be ripped. Like y'all thinking about it right now? It's smart.
Speaker 1: You're like spring breaks coming up and the summer's happening.
Speaker 1: Am I going to go to the pool with my
Speaker 1: shirt on or with my shirt off? Right? I'm like okay,
Speaker 1: as a man, obviously, so right, this is this is uh,
Speaker 1: like we all want to be ripped, but do we
Speaker 1: want the resistance? Right? Like I've always thought like, man, people,
Speaker 1: let me be honest with you. Like you can't spell
Speaker 1: diet without die. That's why I don't do it. I
Speaker 1: don't want to live like you want to diet. No,
Speaker 1: I don't want to die? Oh hell so gross? Why
Speaker 1: do I want to eat that? Talking? No? Absolutely not right? Okay,
Speaker 1: this this y'all are felt this before. I just need
Speaker 1: a little counseling session, you know. I'm just this is
Speaker 1: helpful for me, right, Like, like we want to be
Speaker 1: rip we don't want the resistance, and then we know
Speaker 1: like ah, tensions like tensions like oh do I want that?
Speaker 1: Do I not want that? Like you got to understand
Speaker 1: you you're gonna need that. Like people be asking for
Speaker 1: miracles all the time, but they don't want problems. Like
Speaker 1: if you ask for a miracle, then you're gonna have
Speaker 1: some issues, right right, Like like the bigger the problem,
Speaker 1: the bigger the opportunity for a miracle. Am I right?
Speaker 1: Pastor talked about this idea where you have a problem,
Speaker 1: Heaven has a plan. Let me tell you something. Everybody
Speaker 1: wants to plan, but nobody wants the problems. Right. This
Speaker 1: is very very interesting because we got to stop asking
Speaker 1: for miracles if we don't want some issues. Okay, And
Speaker 1: when you talk about miracles, like, you got to understand
Speaker 1: the greatest miracle like ever is resurrection. Did you notice
Speaker 1: this in the passage? Right, Like you can't have resurrection
Speaker 1: without ah ah, So do you want resurrection? Ah? Right,
Speaker 1: there's this stretching that begins to happen. Now let's talk
Speaker 1: about the truth. Okay, Resurrection is in the forefront of
Speaker 1: this text. Right, Elcia is the prophet, Right, God uses
Speaker 1: them powerfully to bring this boy back from the dead.
Speaker 1: This is pretty amazing, Okay. In fact, this is the
Speaker 1: first resurrection. Okay, there's but you gotta understand there's lots
Speaker 1: of miracles in the Bible, right, Like if you hopefully
Speaker 1: you've read the Bible a little bit and you you
Speaker 1: quickly realize that there are a lot of miracles. Right.
Speaker 1: Blind people can see death, people can hear lame people
Speaker 1: can walk. But resurrection, that's at the top of the list. Right.
Speaker 1: None of these are like resurrection, Right, there's a whole
Speaker 1: other level. Why because it's final like death has a finality.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, like like you can't undo death,
Speaker 1: you know, like like like let me say like this,
Speaker 1: like you like have you ever tried to unbake a
Speaker 1: burnt brownie? You ever try? Mean? Neither you ever like
Speaker 1: trying to unstub your toe, like once you stubbed that thing,
Speaker 1: you're just holding your toe like, oh my gosh, right,
Speaker 1: you ever tried that? Like unrun a red light? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the officer. Let me just uh, let me just take
Speaker 1: a loop back around one more time. Please. This is
Speaker 1: what death is. This final. Ivery want to stay final.
Speaker 1: You've got the resurrection power in Elisha. And this is
Speaker 1: Elijah's ride or die with you heart and soul BFF
Speaker 1: for ever. And what you got to understand is Elisha
Speaker 1: was a farmer. He gets the call to roll with Elijah,
Speaker 1: leaves his equipment, burns it right. And what you got
Speaker 1: to understand about Elisha is that Elisha is not easily offended.
Speaker 1: That's a word for someone in this room. Elisha is
Speaker 1: not easily offended. Right, Elisha has a fortitude. Okay, Elisha
Speaker 1: is the guy that you could not get rid of
Speaker 1: all right, Elisha was the one that stuck it out
Speaker 1: through absolutely everything. He had a work ethic that just
Speaker 1: topped everyone's okay, and he was with Elijah all the
Speaker 1: way up until Elijah was taken up to heaven. And
Speaker 1: then he prayed this prayer that we all are very
Speaker 1: familiar with, where he's saying, give me a double portion,
Speaker 1: who give me a double portion of what Elijah and
Speaker 1: Elisha got it? Right now, Elisha Elishah was the first
Speaker 1: one to do a resurrection. Well, then you got Elisha
Speaker 1: who resurrects this little boy that we just read in
Speaker 1: this passage. Okay, pretty impressive, but remember he gets a
Speaker 1: double portion. Okay. So many years go by and Elisha dies,
Speaker 1: is put into a tomb, okay, and there's a man
Speaker 1: that's thrown into that tomb. And when that man hit
Speaker 1: the grave, he came back to life. You know, your
Speaker 1: bad to the bone when your bones have resurrection power, right,
Speaker 1: that's that double portion resurrection, right, double portion resurrection. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now that's some context because you're gonna really need to
Speaker 1: understand that when we start talking about this. She to
Speaker 1: myite woman's little boy, the shit of my woman says
Speaker 1: everything is fine. Her baby had just died, gone no breath,
Speaker 1: no life, and she's saying everything's fine. This is interesting
Speaker 1: for me, and I want to I want to speak
Speaker 1: on this for the majority of the time because if
Speaker 1: I'm honest with you, the generosity of her hospitality is
Speaker 1: what actually started this miracle. So we're gonna we talked
Speaker 1: about resurrection, but I need you to know what came
Speaker 1: before the resurrection. Okay, I need you to know what
Speaker 1: came before the resurrection. The first thing that happened was
Speaker 1: with their mouth Verse eight. A leading lady of the
Speaker 1: town talked him into stopping for a meal. She's sending
Speaker 1: text to election like, Yo, I love for you to
Speaker 1: come over. Come on, I love you to eat. Let's go,
Speaker 1: let's rock this. Oftentimes we won't even ask anyone of
Speaker 1: anything because it's easier to say no for them. And
Speaker 1: we gotta be careful about this, Like we're like, nah,
Speaker 1: they got too much going on. They don't care that
Speaker 1: much about me. I they would never go to that church,
Speaker 1: like I you know what, I'm good, I'm fine, They're fine.
Speaker 1: We're all fine, like right, Like, we gotta stop fabricating
Speaker 1: responses in our mind before we start asking with our mouths.
Speaker 1: This is something that I watch people do all the time. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna even I'm not even gonna try. I'm
Speaker 1: not even gonna But you want to know how she
Speaker 1: got her miracle. It started with their mouth. It started
Speaker 1: with their mouth. And so you got to like, she
Speaker 1: coming to dinner, and you know she was a good
Speaker 1: cook because it said he kept coming back. She ain't.
Speaker 1: He ain't coming back for tato talk Kessero, real deal.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if this is the fifth time,
Speaker 1: the sixth time, I don't know. But you watch her
Speaker 1: now stretch from her mouth to her eyes. She realizes
Speaker 1: this wasn't just a meal that I'm having with Elisha.
Speaker 1: This is a moment. She starts to see it a
Speaker 1: little bit differently than the way she saw it. She
Speaker 1: starts to see it the way that God has seen it. Right,
Speaker 1: She's like, yeah, yeah, this ain't about us eating. I
Speaker 1: don't think I think this is about our I think
Speaker 1: this is about some kind of purpose, some kind of destiny.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. Some of you are too
Speaker 1: worried about getting fed here at church when your whole
Speaker 1: purpose is to be led by the Holy Spirit. What
Speaker 1: am I saying? Don't they just looking at this like
Speaker 1: a meal. You gotta look at this in a different way.
Speaker 1: You gotta look at this the way that God see this,
Speaker 1: in this moment, right now, your whole life can change.
Speaker 1: Church is not just what culture just says it is.
Speaker 1: Come into a building, it's just church. Cool, make it
Speaker 1: feel good. Check the box now. It could change your
Speaker 1: future right now. It could change your kids right now.
Speaker 1: It could change your attitude right now. It could change
Speaker 1: his attitude right now. It could change her out, It
Speaker 1: could change you. This is the real thing. I mean.
Speaker 1: We don't just say church. I mean this is This
Speaker 1: is a lifeblood. This is the whole reason why Jesus
Speaker 1: gave his life was for the church. So I can't
Speaker 1: have you missed in moments because you think this is
Speaker 1: just a meal. But you got to be connected to
Speaker 1: God to see that. You know that God can be
Speaker 1: doing something new in your life and you not see it.
Speaker 1: I say forty three nineteen for I am about to
Speaker 1: do something new. See I have already begun. Do you
Speaker 1: not see it? The question this year isn't about whether
Speaker 1: or not God is going to do it in your life.
Speaker 1: It's about whether or not you are going to see it.
Speaker 1: She had stretched from her mouth, asking now to her eyes,
Speaker 1: and now because she saw more, she could do more.
Speaker 1: So so now she's stretching from her mouth to her
Speaker 1: eyes and now to her hands. Because she saw more,
Speaker 1: because she saw that meal differently, she could now do more.
Speaker 1: She begins to build this other level on this house. Right,
Speaker 1: I was telling you, it's the first Airbnb of the Bible. Right,
Speaker 1: like she went to home depot. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like some of y'all just sitting waiting on a blessing.
Speaker 1: I know we wrote the song wait on You. I'm
Speaker 1: going on wait on you. I got a new song.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna move for you. You can't you can't just
Speaker 1: sit waiting for an open door. You can't just sit
Speaker 1: waiting for more answers. You can't just sit waiting for
Speaker 1: a miracle. You gotta show me your faith in action.
Speaker 1: You gotta show me your faith in motion. Scripture says
Speaker 1: the faith without works is dead. She didn't call on
Speaker 1: Jehovah Jirah in that moment, Chunks. She called on Joanna
Speaker 1: and Chip Gaines. You know what I'm saying, Some of
Speaker 1: y'all walking in here and y'all want shun da da
Speaker 1: ba Kunda door. But some of y'all need to go
Speaker 1: to home depot. You know what I'm saying, it's both,
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying one is greater than the other.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's both and and you will never
Speaker 1: get the blessing of well if you don't stretch ow.
Speaker 1: So she builds another level. In fact, you could say
Speaker 1: it she builds a new story. What story are you
Speaker 1: focusing on? What story are you focusing on? She had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to just focus on the wrong story, right,
Speaker 1: no baby, no nursery, no new life, but she stretches
Speaker 1: into a new story. You know what's interesting is Elisha
Speaker 1: had never asked for this room, but she did it anyways.
Speaker 1: I think that's very interesting because does God always have
Speaker 1: to ask you to do something? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: you passed a cane? Does God always have to be like,
Speaker 1: always have to give you a sign? Yeah? If she
Speaker 1: wearing pink shoes and a blue shirt, that's your moment.
Speaker 1: This way, if your kid comes to you and talks
Speaker 1: to you about signing up for you techts, then you
Speaker 1: can start talking to you about signing up for you techs. Sorry,
Speaker 1: you know it's interesting about this you know, shameless plug
Speaker 1: because I'm the youth pastor and talk about you text
Speaker 1: every single time. I know summer camp. Also, okay, she
Speaker 1: made space for Elisha. We have to do the same
Speaker 1: thing with our teenagers. We have to make space for
Speaker 1: them to encounter Jesus. So when we talk about like
Speaker 1: signing up registering for youth X and like, like do
Speaker 1: that's very very important, that's very very important. Like we
Speaker 1: are creating, you're creating four days with their life could
Speaker 1: be radically changed, radically changed because you made space. Let's
Speaker 1: go to youth X twenty three dot common register. So
Speaker 1: Lysha comes because she made space for him, and and
Speaker 1: he goes, what can I do for you? And she says,
Speaker 1: I'm good. I don't need anything. I'm secure, I'm with
Speaker 1: my family. In fact, she says I'm good, probably for
Speaker 1: the same reasons we say we're good. You know, when
Speaker 1: people ask how you doing, like, yeah, I'm good, it's
Speaker 1: all good, right. Maybe she been believing for so long
Speaker 1: that she knew that it was going to actually hurt
Speaker 1: to believe again. She's like, yeah, no, I'm good, everything
Speaker 1: is fine. Don't don't dig. Have you ever gotten to
Speaker 1: a place where you're just content, like like, but not
Speaker 1: the good content where you're just like, yeah, it is
Speaker 1: what it is. So I'm fine, I'm comfortable. I've taken
Speaker 1: a deep breath, I've gotten over it and everything is good.
Speaker 1: But I love Alyisha because Elisha didn't quit. He says,
Speaker 1: Hayes that come here. He said, Yo, we got to
Speaker 1: talk talk about this. She said, yeah, man, I saw
Speaker 1: her Instagram. I saw her Facebook. Here's the deal. I'ma
Speaker 1: be honest with you. She ain't got no kids. Her
Speaker 1: husband real old. By the way, it says real old.
Speaker 1: Doesn't just say husband old husband, real old. Like she posting,
Speaker 1: but she ain't living what she posting. She's saying everything
Speaker 1: is fine, But I don't think everything is fine. And
Speaker 1: the life show is like you know what, Come here,
Speaker 1: talk to the shooting. My woman says, this time next year,
Speaker 1: you will be holding a baby boy. Look look at
Speaker 1: that scripture. This time next year you will be holding
Speaker 1: a baby boy. Notice he didn't say this time you
Speaker 1: will be pregnant. He didn't say this time next year
Speaker 1: you will be pregnant. Why because pregnancy does not guarantee
Speaker 1: a child. He says, I know your faith has been
Speaker 1: so fractured. I'm not just gonna say a thing about
Speaker 1: pregnancy so that you'll be stressed the entire time wondering
Speaker 1: about whether or not if this is actually going to
Speaker 1: come to pass. I'm gonna speak to you about your future,
Speaker 1: and I want you to know exactly what is on
Speaker 1: is sway. I asked how you were mouth right, I
Speaker 1: saw you add no baby eyes, and I'm gonna prophesy
Speaker 1: to you that you will hold a baby boy in
Speaker 1: your hands. You are painting that room. Blue girl is happening,
Speaker 1: And you know what I love about this is Elisha
Speaker 1: spoke to her imagination. Elisha spoke to her imagination. Some
Speaker 1: of you have lost your imagination. Some of you have
Speaker 1: lost your ability to dream again. Some of you have
Speaker 1: lost that comprehension to dream and imagine and to have
Speaker 1: that belief in what God wants to do in your life.
Speaker 1: You gotta get your imagination back. The same energy that
Speaker 1: it takes to worry is the same energy it would
Speaker 1: take to imagine. What would be the reason that she
Speaker 1: didn't ask for a miracle was because she had lost
Speaker 1: her imagination. She didn't ask for this miracle. Right. Here's
Speaker 1: what you have to understand asking and imagining are both connected. Okay,
Speaker 1: you don't believe me. If fatures three twenty, Now to
Speaker 1: him who is able to do a measure more than
Speaker 1: all we ask or imagine. We celebrate a measurement more
Speaker 1: all the time. And forget that asking and imagining are
Speaker 1: completely connected. I can tell what you are imagining for
Speaker 1: based off of what you're asking, and you could else.
Speaker 1: She had lost her imagination because she wasn't asking for
Speaker 1: a miracle, and now she's holding her baby. And then
Speaker 1: it says, one day he grew up. He began to complain,
Speaker 1: my head, my head, and this headache turned into her
Speaker 1: holding a dead baby. Boy, it went small too serious
Speaker 1: in seconds. Have you ever been there before? Small too
Speaker 1: serious in seconds? You live in life, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden you get that text small too serious in seconds,
Speaker 1: No life in his body. But did you know that
Speaker 1: it is possible to have disappointment and hope at the
Speaker 1: same time. Pastor spoke last week that Got's up to
Speaker 1: something upstream, and he talked about downstream disappointments. She was
Speaker 1: experiencing a downstream I mean disappointment, But God was up
Speaker 1: to something upstream. She didn't know resurrection was on the way,
Speaker 1: but God did, and she carries her dead boy to
Speaker 1: the room, shuts the door and tells her husband everything's fine.
Speaker 1: Disappointment and hope right there living in the same space.
Speaker 1: Carried the dead boy into the room, shut the door,
Speaker 1: tells her husband everything's fine, gets to the assistant Geese
Speaker 1: and says everything as well with my soul, and then
Speaker 1: runs to Elisha and the resurrection begins to happen. It
Speaker 1: says that Elisha gets on top of this dead boy,
Speaker 1: mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. Johns,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're getting it. Let's illustrate it real quick. No,
Speaker 1: it's okay. I'm not gonna make it. Got real nervous
Speaker 1: mouth and mouth, eyes, dives, hands, dance. You want to
Speaker 1: know why I believe this resurrection happens is because she
Speaker 1: goes back to the one who made all of this happen.
Speaker 1: She said, moved to the side, husband, moved to the side. Assistant.
Speaker 1: I need to go back to the one. For some
Speaker 1: of you in this room, everything that I had just
Speaker 1: said prior to this you didn't need, but you needed
Speaker 1: this moment right here. For some of you, you need
Speaker 1: to come back to the one you need to come
Speaker 1: back to the one who anointed you. You need to
Speaker 1: come back to the one who strengthened you in that season.
Speaker 1: You need to come back to the one who pulled
Speaker 1: you out of that deep dark hole that you never
Speaker 1: thought you could get out of, but then, by the
Speaker 1: grace of God, he got you out. You need to
Speaker 1: go back to the one that loves you, that promised you,
Speaker 1: that anointed you, that appointed you. For every season, you
Speaker 1: need to go back to the one, and for a
Speaker 1: lot of us, I believe that this is going to
Speaker 1: be a year of resurrection. It matters what story you tell.
Speaker 1: She could have been telling the story about no baby,
Speaker 1: no nursery, no life. Let me tell you something, It
Speaker 1: matters what story you tell. God did not fail you.
Speaker 1: God has not forgot about you. He loves you, He
Speaker 1: is not mad at you, He has not misplaced you.
Speaker 1: In fact, God has uniquely set you apart for everything
Speaker 1: that is coming your way. He already knows what's happening upstream,
Speaker 1: and when it comes down stream, He's got you covered. Well.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. If all you focus on
Speaker 1: is death, death will be honest way, and death will
Speaker 1: be here to stay. She had a dead baby boy.
Speaker 1: She didn't focus on that. No move away husband, get
Speaker 1: my donkey move away assistant. I need Elisha. He spoke
Speaker 1: this into existence. He can make something happen now this year,
Speaker 1: I want us to choose to stretch the truth over
Speaker 1: our end entire life, over our mouths, over our eyes,
Speaker 1: over our hands. I'm not saying to be naive. I'm
Speaker 1: saying to stop being negative. I'm not saying to be fake.
Speaker 1: I'm saying to stop forcing death into every situation of
Speaker 1: your life. Listen to me. We can't keep teaching the
Speaker 1: next generation that resurretion exists if we don't know how
Speaker 1: to get there. We can't keep doing it. We're coming
Speaker 1: to churches and we're like, yeah, my faith, I believe,
Speaker 1: I believe in the resurrection power. This is the greatest
Speaker 1: miracle that could ever happen. But we go home and
Speaker 1: we're worried about the littlest things that have no eternal
Speaker 1: value whatsoever. Why we ain't stretching the truth over our
Speaker 1: entire life. We stretch it over church and that's it.
Speaker 1: One and a half hours and we're done. It's gotta
Speaker 1: be over our entire life. This is what God wants,
Speaker 1: This is what the Holy Spirit arns for every single
Speaker 1: one of us, and some of us have been standing
Speaker 1: for too long. Some of us have been standing for
Speaker 1: too long in our own rights, in our own strength,
Speaker 1: and in our own minds. Are here to tell you leaders,
Speaker 1: burnout does not exist. Burnout means you ran out, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly where God wants you. Where. You have run
Speaker 1: out and you have got to need Jesus. So what
Speaker 1: am I saying? Mountain mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands.
Speaker 1: This is what he did. The dead boy gets on
Speaker 1: mountain mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, mouth to mouth.
Speaker 1: What life are you speaking? Or what death? Are you speaking?
Speaker 1: Over your life? Eyes to eyes? What example do people
Speaker 1: have to see the working miracles of Jesus other than yourself?
Speaker 1: Hands to hands, what are you doing? Just like the
Speaker 1: Shunamite woman, this miracle started with her mouth stretched to
Speaker 1: her eyes stretched to her hands. Resurrection is not just
Speaker 1: a fairy tale. You know what I think is interesting?
Speaker 1: If I asked every single one of you to stand
Speaker 1: up and do that, you wouldn't ah to think the
Speaker 1: place God that s embarrassy? Why would I do that?
Speaker 1: Why would you not? Because you'd rather stand and just
Speaker 1: fake it until you made it. You'd rather just stretch
Speaker 1: the truth over this hour and a half rather than
Speaker 1: be honest with yourself and understand, this is what I need.
Speaker 1: There are many people who are living their lives with
Speaker 1: dead parts. So let me ask you, are you really alive?
Speaker 1: Are you just the walking dead? That's not the life
Speaker 1: that God had intended for you. He wants you to
Speaker 1: live a full life, a blessed life, a strong life,
Speaker 1: a full breath life. I'll end with this second King's
Speaker 1: thirteen twenty two. You don't have to bring it up, guys,
Speaker 1: but I told you a little earlier about the story
Speaker 1: of Elciaan, how he had the double portion resurrection, how
Speaker 1: he raises this boy, this shot white woman's boy, then
Speaker 1: he lives a long life, then he dies. Elciaus sent
Speaker 1: into a tomb, and these men pick up this man
Speaker 1: and they throw him on a licious tomb, on a
Speaker 1: licious grave. And told you earlier that man raised from
Speaker 1: the dead just because of the power that was in
Speaker 1: Elisha's bones. You know whose body that was. It is
Speaker 1: said to believe that that is the Shoonomite woman's son.
Speaker 1: So the double portion that Elisha had prayed was not
Speaker 1: just for himself, but it was also for that shotemite
Speaker 1: woman's boy. What am I saying? When you come into
Speaker 1: a right relationship with Jesus Christ, your life is no
Speaker 1: longer about you. One life on another, just like Elisha
Speaker 1: and that little boy, and just like Jesus, one life
Speaker 1: for another, and just it's like your life, one life
Speaker 1: so that someone else can experience the true life of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. One life for another, one life for another,
Speaker 1: one life for another, one life for another, one life.
Speaker 1: We're here to give it all for someone else to know,
Speaker 1: believing breathing miracle of Jesus Christ, so that people can
Speaker 1: know that the world of God, it is alive, it
Speaker 1: is well, and it is true. Passes said, it's not death,
Speaker 1: it's just a shadow. I'm here to encourage you and
Speaker 1: let you know the thing that you think has been dead,
Speaker 1: it might have just been a shadow. It said today
Speaker 1: with every hand open like this, God, I pray for
Speaker 1: people right now that have been living with dead parts,
Speaker 1: that have been living with dead dreams, that have been
Speaker 1: living with with dead, dead moments. God, I pray that
Speaker 1: you would resurrect that. God. We believe in resurrection. God,
Speaker 1: we believe that resurrection still exists. It is not a
Speaker 1: fairy tale. So we believe that you can resurrect the
Speaker 1: dead parts of our life. God, stretch the truth of
Speaker 1: your Holy Spirit over every single part, even the parts
Speaker 1: that we hide from you, even the parts that we
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about, even the parts that we
Speaker 1: try and put into a corner and we're content with
Speaker 1: it never happening again, even those parts. God stretch us,
Speaker 1: move us. God. I pray that people would go into
Speaker 1: lunches today and they're talking about dreams that they haven't
Speaker 1: talked about in ten years. Got I pray people in
Speaker 1: here right now. There's some people online right now that
Speaker 1: need to text their dad, that need to make that
Speaker 1: phone call to their mother, that need to have that
Speaker 1: conversation with their sister, who with their son, because they
Speaker 1: have believed the lie of the enemy, that it is
Speaker 1: dead and it will no longer happen anymore. And I
Speaker 1: rebuke that. In the name of Jesus Christ, you can
Speaker 1: be allies, You can be alive. God is fighting for us,
Speaker 1: He is in it with us, and he is working
Speaker 1: through us. He is not against us. He is in
Speaker 1: it with us. He is fighting for us, and he
Speaker 1: is working through us, He is not against us, and
Speaker 1: God we believe it. We don't just come in here
Speaker 1: check off a box. We say, right now, Lord, right now, life, life, life, life, life, life, life, life,
Speaker 1: over dead things life life. Some of you need to
Speaker 1: stretch out over a debt cult thing right now life. Well,
Speaker 1: if you enjoy today's podcast, there are a couple of
Speaker 1: things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review this podcast. You can also help us reach
Speaker 1: others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give
Speaker 1: and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast